This Week In Quotes: Mar 23 – Mar 29

I never have believed that Jesus Christ would approve of abortions and that was one of the problems I had when I was president, having to uphold Roe v. Wade. And I did everything I could to minimize the need for abortions. I made it easy to adopt children, for instance, that were unwanted and also initiated the program called Women and Infant Children, or WIC program, that’s still in existence now. But except for the times when a mother’s life is in danger or when a pregnancy is caused by rape or incest I would certainly not or never have approved of any abortions…I’ve signed a public letter calling for the Democratic Party at the next convention to espouse my position on abortion which is to minimize the need, requirement for abortion and limit it only to women whose life are in danger or who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest. I think if the Democratic Party would adopt that policy that would be acceptable to a lot of people who are now estranged from our party because of the abortion issue. — Jimmy Carter

Why aren’t they showing us Zimmerman’s baby pictures? (And why didn’t we get to see baby pictures of the Duke lacrosse players? I bet they were adorable.) — Ann Coulter

Over St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the month after Martin was killed, gangs in Chicago shot 10 people dead, including a 6-year-old girl, Aliyah Shell, who was sitting with her mother on their front porch. One imagines MSNBC hosts heaving a sign of relief that little Aliyah was not shot by a white man, and was thus spared the horror of being a victim of racism. — Ann Coulter

People have to stop politicizing (The Trayvon Martin issue). It’s no surprise that some of our Republican opponents are trying to make an issue with this. But the President spoke from the heart and we need to let the investigation take its course. — Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s Deputy Campaign Manager

In placing our constitution in the hands of a black robed elite who can divine from thin air powers, rights, and duties neither contemplated nor easily extrapolated from the constitution, our republic has become a kingdom. Our king is Anthony Kennedy. Every argument advanced is advanced with him in mind. On every major issue he is the decisive vote. Put bluntly, the constitutional integrity of our republic has been ceded to one man in the third branch of our federal government. It makes him more powerful than the democratically elected Congress and President. It is not a sign that our system is too partisan. It is a sign that our system is broken in a fundamental way. — Erick Erickson

It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background. Is the President suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot that would be ok because it didn’t look like him? — Newt Gingrich

It’s something I was very hesitant about, but we’re the only mammals who don’t ingest our own placentas. It’s not witchcrafty or anything! I suggest it to all moms! — January Jones

If Obamacare is upheld, it fundamentally changes the nature of the American social contract. It means the effective end of a government of enumerated powers – i.e., finite, delineated powers beyond which the government may not go, beyond which lies the free realm of the people and their voluntary institutions. The new post-Obamacare dispensation is a central government of unlimited power from which citizen and civil society struggle to carve out and maintain spheres of autonomy. — Charles Krauthammer

My advice to anyone, black or white, is to never listen to anyone, a teacher, professor, preacher, or leader, that makes you feel resentful or hateful towards another race. — Kathleen McKinnley

But when a candidate says, not blatantly but between the lines, “I want to be president because I’m an extraordinary and superior human and want you to see me that way too,” well, that sort of subliminally gives a lot of people the creeps. They will see you as ego-driven, not purpose-driven. They may elect you anyway, but this year especially they won’t. Mr. Romney seems stuck in “I am extraordinary.” But Mr. Obama does, too. He’s proof that it’s not enough. — Peggy Noonan

by Sir John Hawkins

John Hawkins's book 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is filled with lessons that newly minted adults need in order to get the most out of life. Gleaned from a lifetime of trial, error, and writing it down, Hawkins provides advice everyone can benefit from in short, digestible chapters.

Presidents have to have a sophisticated sense of others’ agendas and know the implications of those agendas. They have to be able to imagine overall impact. Does Mr. Romney have such sophistication? Another way of asking is to note a small but telling aspect of his public speaking style. There is something strangely uninflected there. He says very different things in the same tone. “Pass the mustard!” “This means war!” “Flowers are pretty!” “Don’t tread on me!” It’s all the same tone, the same level of import and engagement. Which it would be if you’re sort of . . . well, if you see issues as entities to deploy as opposed to think about and weigh. — Peggy Noonan

If you jumped into a time machine to the day after the election, in November, 2012, and saw a headline saying “Obama Loses,” do you imagine that would be followed by widespread sadness, pain and a rending of garments? You do not. Even his own supporters will not be that sad. It’s hard to imagine people running around in 2014 saying, “If only Obama were president!” — Peggy Noonan

My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. — Barack Obama

This is a president who has some apologizing to do and it’s not to the people overseas for America, it’s to the people in America for his policies. — Mitt Romney

(Romney is the worst candidate) “to run against Barack Obama on the issue of health care, because he fashioned the blueprint. I’ve been saying it in every speech. Quit distorting our words. If I see it [in print], it’s bull(sh*t). C’mon man, what are you doing? — Rick Santorum

Obamacare doesn’t just discourage entrance into the medical profession; it encourages those who are already practicing to leave it. The survey states that “health care reform is motivating doctors to change their retirement timeline.” In fact, 43 percent of respondents said they are considering retiring within the next five years as a result of the law. — Alyene Senger

Since obtaining the presidency, Barack Obama has led a Democratic Party that would be better called The Society for the Preservation of Racism. The reason is evident. Increasingly, racism – and more generally, the division of our country into racial and ethnic interest groups – is all the Democrats have. — Roger Simon

But these comparisons tend to understate the insolvency of America, failing as they do to take into account state and municipal debts and public pension liabilities. When Morgan Stanley ran those numbers in 2009, the debt-to-revenue ratio in Greece was 312 percent; in the United States it was 358 percent. If Greece has been knocking back the ouzo, we’re face down in the vat. Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute calculates that, if you take into account unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare versus their European equivalents, Greece owes 875 percent of GDP; the United States owes 911 percent – or getting on for twice as much as the second-most-insolvent Continental: France at 549 percent. — Mark Steyn

Washington is dependent on the bond markets being willing to absorb an increase of U.S. debt equivalent to the GDP of Canada or India – every year. And those numbers don’t take into account the huge levels of personal debt run up by Americans. College-debt alone is over a trillion dollars, or the equivalent of the entire South Korean economy – tied up just in one small boutique niche market of debt which barely exists in most other developed nations. — Mark Steyn

Ten years ago the U.S. dollar was worth 1.6 Canadian; now it’s at par. A decade ago, the dollar was worth over ten Swedish Kroner, now 6.7; 1.8 Singapore dollars, now 1.2. — Mark Steyn

We discovered that having a child is the single best predictor that a person will go bankrupt. — Elizabeth Warren

I never foresaw so much hate coming from the president, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP. Every organization imaginable is trying to get notoriety or profit from this in some way. But there’s so much hate that I have never been involved in hate and George hasn’t. It’s really unbelievable.” — Robert Zimmerman, George Zimmerman’s father